


toph and zuko cook a meal together

by healinggems



Series: the misadventures of toph and zuko [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, and this fic capitalises on that, because i wrote this instead of sleeping, but oh well, gonna be honest this is bad, here it is anyway, toph and zuko grew up rich
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:27:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24644056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/healinggems/pseuds/healinggems
Summary: "I found something pretty easy," he says. "We should have all the ingredients here already, and it doesn't take that long apparently."She snorts. "Don't underestimate the enemy, Zuko. This meal could be something hard presenting itself as easy to make."toph and zuko cook a meal but other stuff happens too
Relationships: Toph Beifong & Zuko
Series: the misadventures of toph and zuko [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1781785
Comments: 28
Kudos: 1132





	toph and zuko cook a meal together

**Author's Note:**

> what was i thinking when i wrote this
> 
> i probably wasn't it was like 3am when i did so-

"So," Zuko starts awkwardly, walking around the room and opening a cupboard. 

"So," Toph echoes him, not bothering to look around. "I suppose we're ignoring the general blindness thing we've got going on?" 

"Yep." He pops the 'p' ever so slightly, not taking anything out. 

"And the fact that neither of us have ever cooked a meal in our lives?" Zuko falters for a second, then continues rummaging around. 

"Yep." 

"Are we deliberately fucking this up, or actually trying our best?" she asks, raising a single eyebrow to emphasise the question. 

"Depends. Do you think they'll murder us?" he responds, and they both sound so nonchalant it's as if they're discussing the weather. 

"I don't think it'll matter either way, considering we'll screw it up anyway." Zuko thinks over it for a moment, then shrugs. 

"Fair point. However," he continues, "I don't think Katara will be very happy if we even so much as attempt fucking this up." That's one thing Toph likes about Zuko - he doesn't stop swearing in front of her like everyone else does, even though she's the one who swears the most. 

"Valid point," she concedes. "Disappointing, but I think we can work with our - what, one eye and abysmal cooking skills? Yeah, I think we can manage." 

Though still tense, Zuko's posture relaxes ever so slightly. "I think we'll manage just fine."

"So. What are we making?" she moves closer to him, waiting for something to do. 

"If I'm remembering right, there should be a book of recipes in here somewhere from when my family still came here, so I thought I'd find that and we'd just make something from that. I mean, even we can't fuck something up that badly if we know what we're doing, right?"

"Right," she says, not hiding her scepticism. "Would we even have the right ingredients for any of them? And can you even recognise them?" 

"Well, no, not many-" he splutters, moving towards another cupboard. "But I'm sure we can make an attempt at it?" He sounds so unsure that Toph wants to laugh. 

"Well then, we'd better make this count because those guys will never let us prepare food together again." Though it won't help, she starts pulling the food that Sokka and Katara have stocked in the cupboards out and onto the surface she presumes they'll be working on. Zuko finally pulls something out and starts flipping through it, eventually settling on a random page. 

"I found something pretty easy," he says. "We should have all the ingredients here already, and it doesn't take that long apparently."

She snorts. "Don't underestimate the enemy, Zuko. This meal could be something hard _presenting_ itself as easy to make." 

He sighs in defeat, as he examines what she's laying out for him. His shoulders shake a little, but she can't tell if he's getting worked up or laughing - spirits know that either of those are still very rare for him. 

"I don't know what any of these are," his voice is oddly strangled as he says that. "I've literally never seen any of these in my life." 

Toph fights the urge to burst out crying, or cackling, or both. It's bad enough that Zuko is also battling this urge, from the sound of it - if she also breaks, they'll never get anywhere. She breathes in deeply (then thinks the only reason Zuko hasn't already started breaking down is probably because he can breathe really well), and shoves both instincts away. 

"Just pick something that looks like what you're thinking of and be done with it," she offers helpfully, so he grabs one of them after a few moments of hesitation, holding it close to his face. After that, the two settle into their routine - Zuko trying, and failing, to recognise the ingredient they need, and Toph giving him advice that isn't actually helpful. 

"So," she starts, turning to face him. He doesn't make any indication he's heard her, except for the way his heart jumps at being addressed (which will always be amusing to her). "We never really addressed it, but the whole Fire Nation thing didn't work out for you in the end, then?" She's keeping her voice as casual as she normally would, trying not to freak him out. 

Zuko freaks out easily. Not externally, but definitely internally. His heart still stutters a little, but he's been getting better as time goes by, so Toph can live with it. 

"Not really," he replies. "You know when you've wanted something for years, and you keep on trying to reach it?" 

"Yeah." She really does know that feeling all too well - she's wanted to escape her family her entire life, and prove that she doesn't need to be coddled for something she's been used to her entire life. 

"Well, going back home was all I really wanted," he admits, and he sounds as wistful as someone like Zuko can sound. "But when I got back, I'd changed too much to be happy with where I was. I'd seen too much of what the Fire Nation had done and it just wasn't what I'd been chasing after the entire time."

… Well. "So you weren't happy at all, there?" 

"Overall, no, but there were moments where I was happy. Like, I spent a while at the turtleduck pond in the palace, or I did something nice with Mai. But overall, I was angry all the time." 

"No shit. You were angry all the time?" she says sarcastically, and at that Zuko actually turns towards her, posture suggesting indignation. 

"It was different though," he presses on. "When I was chasing Aang, I was angry at the world and I was angry at anything I could blame, but when I returned the only thing I could blame for everything was me, so I spent my time in the Fire Nation angry at myself for everything I did."

Toph, at a loss for words, just quirks an eyebrow and says, "That's rough, buddy." Thank the spirits for Sokka and his gossip sessions. Zuko's shoulders hunch a little at the reminder of his horrible people skills, and he goes quiet and thoughtful for a bit. 

The sound of a knife hitting a board is the only thing breaking the silence between them. 

Zuko huffs out a laugh. "I visited Uncle nearly every day while I was there, and he ignored me every time. Not that I blame him, but it made me so frustrated because I didn't know what to do, and I had to apologise to him for everything. I'm just glad he broke out in the end."

That makes her perk a little. Zuko hasn't really said anything about his uncle since he joined everyone - at least, nothing about after Ba Sing Se, because those tea jokes definitely came from somewhere (which Zuko himself even admitted.) "That's good for him," she ends up saying, unwilling to seem too eager. 

"Yeah," she can hear Zuko smile, and in one of those rare moments in her life, she wishes she could see just to see him smile. He rarely does. 

"I'm sure other stuff happened there, though?" she asks. "It wasn't just your uncle, was it?" 

"Well, there was this weird thing. I found this note in my room one night and then I had to read the stories of my great-grandfathers or something, to form my own opinion or something along those lines. I found out some stuff I didn't know before, but if I tell anyone I would probably die." Zuko scrapes whatever he's been cutting to the side and starts on the next thing, as if he hasn't just said something so horrifying. 

"Die?" she prompts him, and his heart rate skyrockets. 

"Oh- not like that!" he fumbles over his words, and Toph feels more and more weirded out by the second. "I meant, like the others would tease me mercilessly for the rest of my life - especially Aang."

Oh? "It can't be that bad." 

"It's not bad," he stresses. "I just don't want to deal with the jokes you guys will make." 

"I can't believe you think we'll just make jokes about your family," she sarcastically places a hand over her heart, faking hurt. 

"I can't trust any of you with this knowledge - you'll all just tell the others," he says, but there's a light quality in his voice that assures her they're both still mutually joking with each other. 

"Fair enough," she concedes. "So you had an ancestral revelation. What else happened?" 

"We had a beach day." Zuko does some other stuff that she can't really make out with the ingredients. Being moral support is great. 

"We?" 

"Me, Azula, Mai and Ty Lee," he explains. "Azula burned the volleyball net at some point, and we also went to a party for a bit, had a massive argument back at the beach then went back to the house and trashed it together. It was an overwhelming day." 

"Sounds great," she agrees. "Can we have a beach party day as well?" 

Zuko shrugs. "Go for it."

After that, they (read: Zuko) finish preparing the meal in a comfortable silence. Occasionally Zuko asks her to contribute by holding something, or crushing something, or sprinkling herbs and spices, but other than that he does the entirety of the work. 

As predicted, everyone hates it. 

"What the hell is this?" Sokka splutters, after taking a bite. "This is disgusting!" 

"After everything we did," she mockingly cries. "We tried so hard to make that meal and you judge us so harshly!" 

"How can neither of you cook at all?" Katara questions. 

"Hello? Blind girl whose servants made her food her entire life? Half blind prince who lived in a palace most of his life and probably had a personal chef? The question really should be how did none of you think about that?" she shoots back. Katara makes a few indignant noises. 

"I mean," Zuko continues the joke, but his tone is so serious that Toph has to fight back a laugh. "I'm honoured you thought so highly of me that you assumed I could even recognise the ingredients we have, but I have to agree. You put the nobles with one eye between them on meal duty and didn't expect it to fail?" 

"I never thought of that," Aang muses. "What were we thinking, putting them together?" 

"Obviously we weren't," Sokka grumbles, placing his bowl to the side. "Of course those two would absolutely ruin even the easiest of meals." 

"I'll have you know it was very hard for us two," she protests. "Not easy, therefore we fucked up a hard meal, not an easy one."

"Well, either way, I am never pairing the two of you together again," Katara says despairingly. Toph cackles. 

Then she turns to Zuko and says, "So. About that beach party." 

Everyone groans. 

**Author's Note:**

> i have a writing tumblr - @heaalinggems


End file.
